1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a lubricant management system for an internal combustion engine and, more particularly, to a system that provides a means and method for accommodating the lubricating oil used to lubricate an air compressor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In fuel injected engines, in which the fuel must be injected into the combustion chamber at a relatively high pressure, an air compressor is generally required to provide the pressure. Certain types of fuel injection systems, such as that which injects the fuel into the crankcase or at the cylinder wall of the engine, do not require air compressors because they inject the fuel into a lower pressure region than direct fuel injection which injects the fuel into the high pressure region of a combustion chamber. Additionally, direct fuel injection systems typically require that the fuel spray have superior atomization quality.
Direct fuel injection necessitates the use of an air compressor for the reasons described above. The air compressor must be lubricated to prevent excessive wear and eventual failure because of friction within the compressor. In a typical application of a direct fuel injected engine, a flow of lubricant, such as motor oil, is provided to the air compressor at an inlet of the air compressor and the oil is removed from the compressor at an outlet of the air compressor. The oil removed from the air compressor must be disposed of in some appropriate manner. Engines known to those skilled in the art typically direct the flow of lubricating oil from the compressor to the intake manifold of the engine. The seepage of oil through this conduit is drawn from the end of the conduit into the air stream of the intake manifold and then into the cylinders where it experiences combustion along with the fuel/air mixture provided to the engine. In some cases, this method of disposing of the air compressor lubricant is satisfactory. However, in other circumstances, the oil can be disproportionally carried to one cylinder to the extent that it is much greater than the lubricant carried to the other cylinders. When this occurs, the cylinder receiving the oil can become excessively fouled. This creates a deleterious situation.
It would therefore be beneficial if a means or method could be provided to more equally distribute the flow of oil from the air compressor to all of the cylinders of the engine.